Patrick Reynolds....future RV builder
I've only recently started following your site, every day in fact.
I ordered an RV-7 empennage kit back in February. I'm looking forward to
getting started on it in the fall when I return home from Afghanistan.
Shortly after I ordered the kit, I used you logo to have two hats and a
t-shirt made. I was in Afghanistan at the time and could not make the
donation, the SemperFi site would not take my information. In any event, I
am home for two weeks of R&R and I was able to make the donation this
morning...confirmation below. As an active duty Marine this donation means a
lot to me as our young Marines are still in the fight.
Thanks again and Semper Fidelis,

VansAirForce.net Cap Donation
....Kyle Lee
"My daughter with a $50 donation to the White Ribbon Foundation - an
Australian campaign to stop violence against women."

I wanted to write to express my gratitude towards all the wonderful people
who made it possible for Alejandro and Alex to go to AirVenture.

It all started with a visit to Mike Rettig's house to see how he was
building a plane in his garage. Alex was finally out of the hospital and
slowly regaining energy after months of chemo/radiation and many weeks in
the hospital, when he was finally good enough to go see how Mike was
building an RV plane in is garage.

Mike was awesome, he explained things so well to Alex, and even let Alex
rivet two pieces of metal together for practice. Alex did a great job, but
did not last too long, he became very tired quickly, so his experience with
Mike was fairly short. During that short visit Mike asked if Alex has ever
been to Oshkosh, and Alex, replied, “no”, but he would love to go.

Mike took the ball and ran with it, posting on the VAF forum, asking for
help to get Alex to Oshkosh, and then boom, people started to donate time,
money, and services. When I heard that this idea was becoming a reality, I
was really excited for Alex, because he had a real rough year, and I just
wanted nothing more than for Alex to start enjoying life again. Alex loves
planes, and loves to fly them, so for him, to have the opportunity to go to
Oshkosh, it was a dream come true.

This trip was not only for Alex, but his Dad too. Spending fun time with
Alex was much needed. Alejandro took care of Alex a lot, while I still
worked to maintain the health insurance and pay the bills. It was very hard
on Alejandro, to see his son sick all day. I know, because it was very hard
for me too. It took so much out of us, to not show Alex our fears and
sadness.

Everyday we count our blessing and pray for continued recovery & remission.
The one thing it taught our family, is to live life to the fullest. Take the
time out of your busy schedule to spend time with your loved ones. Don't
take things for granted. It also taught us that we now have an opportunity
to give back. We want to help other families of a child with cancer through
the rough times of cancer treatment, through volunteer work and support
groups.

I want to thank to thank everyone who made this dream come true.

Mike Rettig – thank you for making Alex's dream a reality, by dedicating a
lot of time into planning and posting information to the VAF's website

Dwight Drefs – thank you for flying Alejandro and Alex out to Oshkosh

Paul Mermens – thank you for raising money for the trip

Gary Zilik for the young eagles flight and the tremendous donations

Jim Berry for taking Alex up in your awesome RV-10

Mike Dooley and Chad Jensen for the golf carts, Alex and Alejandro were able
to see a lot more of Airventure, without getting too exhausted.

Oshkosh Christian School for the accommodation

& Ray Allen Company and all the other donors.

I want to also take this opportunity to thank Doug Reeves, for sending the
proceeds of the annual VansAirForce.net baseball cap sale. We are just so
touched by all the generosity and love.

Thank you!
Michelle Cuellar (Alex's Mom)

November '09$300 raised while
aircraft camping at Petit Jean, AR for the Make-A-Wish Foundation of North
Texas. All this Ross Burgess' idea.

4/27/09RV Community Act of Charity:
John Trollinger (RV-10 Empcone) Is Trying To Raise $1,000 For Diabetes
"I
am riding my bicycle 100 miles to raise money for diabetes. This is my
third year doing the ride and I am trying to reach $1000.
Here is a link to my event."
Jon is 'jtrollin' in the forums.

4/21/09GOAL
REACHED!!!
Scott Schmidt (RV-10 builder/pilot) is leading (lead) the charge to
raise $1000 for the Death Valley Walk For Life organization. Discussed
in his
latest trip write-up story. -
Update:
100% [ed. Long story short...guy flies in...eats at restaurant...sees lady
in need....decides to raise $1000. Scott, you are an perfect example of
what makes the RV community so special. dr]

1/30/09$500 To American Cancer
Society....Mr. Kevin BenzigerHere is how the story goes: I am a car guy that is building an RV-8A. I also have a small
Aircraft Broker Service on the side. Back in June of 2008 I had a Rv-6A
owner from Texas call me to have me sell his plane. In talking with Tommy,
he told me that he and a partner had bought the -6A a few months earlier and
needed to sell because his partner couldn't pass a medical and the
partnership was being disbanded. We discussed the price signed, a broker
agreement and away I went. I did the usual Barnstormers and of course VAF's
classified! To encourage buyers to use VAF, I offered $500.00 to a VAF
charity if it sold from this site. Doug was very gracious and posted the -6A on the front page and
gave it good press. I was blown away with the number of hits my ads took.
The posting generated over 7,100 hits and after a long trip, the RV-6A has
been sold. The new owner is out of Jacksonville, Florida and will be a VAFer
soon, if he hasn't already joined. His brother-in-law, Bill, who flies a
RV-8 out of North Carolina found the ad on VAF and helped Joe work out the
details. On January 24th the plane left Texas and headed east. As promised
in my ad, today I presented the American Cancer Society with a check for
$500.00 and was glad to do it! Thanks for a great web site!Kevin BenzigerCheck being presented to the
American Cancer Society in the name of vansairforce.net

1/25/09A Thank You From World
Cataract Foundation....I got the following email/letter from Lori
Hudson on the 23rd.

"We received a donation and would like to recognize the
people involved. You are welcome to post all or some of the attached
message. I've included a photo to go with the story if you'd like to show
that. Anyway, we are very grateful for the donation. We are preparing to
return to Ometepec February 21st where we hope to operate on about 200 more
people. In grateful appreciation,Lori Hudson Executive Director World Cataract Foundation
901-379-0405"

Helping the World to See

Thanks to a network of events, World Cataract Foundation has received a
generous donation. Dr. James Freeman from Memphis, Tennessee purchased some
parts for his airplane. After discovering the parts weren’t exactly what was
needed, Dan and Patricia Horton from Wetumpka, Alabama purchased what they
could use and then arranged the sale of the remaining parts to G. Randy Sachau, DDS from Spearfish, South Dakota.
At the
request of Dr. Freeman, the Hortons and Dr. Sachua donated the proceeds from
the sale of the parts to World Cataract Foundation. A huge thanks
to Dan and Patricia Horton, Dr. G. Randy Sachau and Dr. James Freeman.

World Cataract Foundation is a 501(c)(3) charitable organization committed
to helping restore sight to those who are visually impaired or completely
blind from cataracts.

For thirty-eight years WCF has sent teams to serve the underprivileged in
Ometepec, Guerrero, Mexico. Our forty-member team arrived in Ometepec on
November 15th and performed 239 surgeries. These people do not have access
to eye care and look forward to our visits each year. In addition to the
local Mexican population, we see many Amuzgos and Mexticos.

During this last trip to Ometepec, a group from Tlamacazapa traveled 12
hours by bus, each one desperately hoping to receive a sight-restoring
operation. Our ophthalmologists successfully operated on five patients.
Malory Hendrickson, the missionary who accompanied this group to Ometepec,
took them to see the ocean on their return trip. Attached is a photo of
Catalina viewing the ocean for the first time in her life. You’ll notice she
still has her patch on from cataract surgery. She kept asking Malory,
“Aren’t you afraid of the waves?” She was overwhelmed by this massive body
of water that seemed to never end. Just imagine, two days earlier she
wouldn’t have been able to see this beautiful beach and ocean.

For more information about World Cataract Foundation go to
www.worldcataract.org or call 901-379-0405.

9/25/08Donation Check #2 Delivered.
Make-A-Wish North Texas Gets $8,000 Thanks To The RV Community Yesterday I took our daughter out of school for a few hours so she
could accompany me as I met with Ken Avery down at the Make-A-Wish North
Texas office in downtown Fort Worth. You're probably already aware
that 100% of all profits from VansAirForce.net logo items go to charity
(past, present and future). You'll be happy to hear that the
latest batch of shirts and such raised $8,000 for Make-A-Wish North
Texas in memory of Julian Avery (www.juliansworld.org).
There are a couple hundred shirts left if you want to help us raise some
more!!! When you see a VansAirForce.net shirt or cap, you are looking at
charity in action, and I can't thank you enough for helping.

4/16/08Chad Jensen Sells Polished Prop - Gives 51% of Profits to Make A
Wish...uses the VAF forum classifieds to raise over $300 for Make A Wish."I had a little fun with Photoshop tonight...took a picture of the check
that went to Make-A-Wish, and merged it with a goofy pic of myself to appear
as though I'm holding a huge check. I've always wanted to present one of
those huge checks!LOL!!
:o)Chad Jensen
VAF#755"

The Idea: "I
have the original propeller from my old 1968 Cherokee 180 taking up
space in my "airplane room" in my house, and I'd like to put together an
auction-type sale to raise some money for the Make A Wish
Foundation that VAF supports. This propeller is not currently
airworthy, and I don't know where the logs are, if it ever had a log. It
certainly could be airworthy with an annual and/or overhaul. There is an
AD on this prop that can be taken care of with an overhaul, at least
that's what I've been told by the prop shop. It is a beautiful
prop that we had taken down to the bare aluminum, and I've done some
initial polishing on. Details...Sensenich 76EM8S5-0-60, serial
number 7488. 76" diameter, 60" pitch for cruise. When it came off the
airplane, it had about 4,500TT, and about 1,000 SMOH. I have no proof of
this. These propellers are installed on, but not limited to the
following aircraft: Piper PA-28-180, PA-28-181, American General
Aircraft Holding Co., Inc. (formerly Gulfstream American) AA-5 series,
Beech B23 and C23, Cessna 172Q, Avions Pierre Robin R-3000/160, among
others."

How It Went Down:"The prop is officially sold to Bob Brown
for $600!" Over $300 goes to charity!!! Great idea, Chad.

3/18/08Where The Money Goes...an audio clip from Jennifer Trotter
of the N.Texas office of Make A Wish discussing where the money raised
selling the VansAirForce.net
baseball caps goes. Caps cost $7 to make. We up the
price by $5 (which all goes to charity). So far we've raised over
$1,200 - expecting to write another check of the same amount in a month
or two.

3/6/08Donation Check #1 Is Delivered On Thursday, 3/6/08, Susie and I met Ken Avery down at the
North Texas office of the Make-A-Wish Foundation. This first check
represents 100% of the profits from the first batch of (240)
VansAirForce.net charity caps (more on why I'm doing this at right) and was
donated in memory of Julian Avery. Left to right: Me, Paige Kelly (Make A Wish volunteer) and Ken Avery.
The T-shirt selection I chose was not an accident <g>.

1/22/08Kurt Klewin (RV-6A builder, Iraqi Freedom Veteran...and marathon runner)"snip...I’ve decided to run this year’s event for a purpose a bit
greater than my continued quest for 3 hours of pain followed by 3 days of
difficulty walking. I’ve decided to run this year and raise money for
an organization called Snowball Express. As some of you may know, Snowball
Express is a non-profit organization that raises money to send spouses and
children of service members who have lost their lives in Iraq and
Afghanistan."more info about helping Kurt out

01/03/08
- All profits from items sold with VansAirForce.net logo on it pledged
to charity from this point forward.

10/07/07
- $14,000 raised for the Lee & Beulah Moor Children's Home and
the Mesilla Valley Community of Hope during the 2007 'Land
of Enchantment RV Fly In'.